Dominic Otero
Dominic Otero - 2020
Dominic Otero was one of those “lucky” Evergreen High School seniors who graduated during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. To say that his first year of college hasn’t been what he expected would be an understatement.
Dominic received a Bootstraps scholarship in the spring of 2020 and is attending college at Montana State University in Bozeman. He says the Bootstraps scholarship was a great gift to help cover the tuition of over $25,000 per year. MSU has also provided Dominic with a scholarship that is renewable each year.
Although Dominic says his transition from high school to college was smooth, the pandemic limited his full involvement in university life. Dominic possesses an independent spirit, which helped him to adapt easily to life away from home. He found that college professors were helpful and willing to ease the transition to university-level studies. He learned from online courses and made full use of the resources offered to him.
Dominic challenged himself to build and apply his academic courses to the real world. He has completed a lot of pre-requisites and core courses at MSU. On the science side, he took chemistry, sociology, nutrition, and anatomy and physiology. Dominic’s advice to future college students is to take college courses in high school or take core classes early in college.
Dominic received a Bootstraps scholarship in the spring of 2020 and is attending college at Montana State University in Bozeman. He says the Bootstraps scholarship was a great gift to help cover the tuition of over $25,000 per year. MSU has also provided Dominic with a scholarship that is renewable each year.
Although Dominic says his transition from high school to college was smooth, the pandemic limited his full involvement in university life. Dominic possesses an independent spirit, which helped him to adapt easily to life away from home. He found that college professors were helpful and willing to ease the transition to university-level studies. He learned from online courses and made full use of the resources offered to him.
Dominic challenged himself to build and apply his academic courses to the real world. He has completed a lot of pre-requisites and core courses at MSU. On the science side, he took chemistry, sociology, nutrition, and anatomy and physiology. Dominic’s advice to future college students is to take college courses in high school or take core classes early in college.
Dominic Otero - 2021
COVID-19 impacted Dominic’s education due to the irregularities of online learning while juggling lots of changes at the school. For example, some teachers adapted well to online teaching while others did not. Also, lab courses are difficult to conduct online, but he had to adapt to online labs for chemistry, while attending the other three lab classes in person. The courses that offered smaller more frequent quizzes with check-ins from professors were more educational than big classes with a few major tests.
For his first year, Dominic is living in a dorm. The residence halls had many limitations because of the pandemic. The kitchen, ski wax, and bike rooms were never open. The first dorm that he lived in was one of the oldest on campus with shared bathrooms. In his second semester, he moved to a newer residence hall – a little bit nicer but all extra rooms were closed due to COVID.
Dominic dreams of becoming a flight nurse in the air force, which is like an ICU in a cargo plane. The main difference between military and civilian nursing is that patients in the military who are in critical condition need to be transported thousands of miles for advanced care. Civilian flight nursing is an emergency evacuation in a helicopter due to the significantly shorter distances. His future work as a flight nurse would involve a lot of traveling. His ideal job would be based at Kadena Air Force Base in Okinawa, Japan. Only three bases exist in the world providing these services; they are located in the US, Germany, and Japan.
Dominic currently lives in Bozeman and is completing the pre-requisites for his nursing degree. This spring he will apply to the nursing program within the College of Nursing at MSU. Depending on when he is accepted, his clinical courses will start next semester or next spring.
Dominic participated in a variety of extra-curricular activities in high school and college. He was involved in photography in high school and continues to enjoy nature photography. He is an avid rock climber and enjoys both indoor and outdoor climbing. His youth group climbed Hyalite Canyon and Revenue Flats in Montana. He is also a skier and enjoys Bridger Bowl because it’s a few minutes from campus and he can actually afford it. He would love to ski at Big Sky, but the ticket price is too rich for a college student’s budget.
Dominic has one word for how the Bootstraps scholarship affected him: “Motivation. Receiving the scholarship was a boost in motivation because it helped me see that I was going in the right direction. The scholarship is helping me make something of myself. It is a reward that is helping me go farther in my life.” Fortunately for Dominic, his scholarship has been renewed for the 2021/22 academic year!
For his first year, Dominic is living in a dorm. The residence halls had many limitations because of the pandemic. The kitchen, ski wax, and bike rooms were never open. The first dorm that he lived in was one of the oldest on campus with shared bathrooms. In his second semester, he moved to a newer residence hall – a little bit nicer but all extra rooms were closed due to COVID.
Dominic dreams of becoming a flight nurse in the air force, which is like an ICU in a cargo plane. The main difference between military and civilian nursing is that patients in the military who are in critical condition need to be transported thousands of miles for advanced care. Civilian flight nursing is an emergency evacuation in a helicopter due to the significantly shorter distances. His future work as a flight nurse would involve a lot of traveling. His ideal job would be based at Kadena Air Force Base in Okinawa, Japan. Only three bases exist in the world providing these services; they are located in the US, Germany, and Japan.
Dominic currently lives in Bozeman and is completing the pre-requisites for his nursing degree. This spring he will apply to the nursing program within the College of Nursing at MSU. Depending on when he is accepted, his clinical courses will start next semester or next spring.
Dominic participated in a variety of extra-curricular activities in high school and college. He was involved in photography in high school and continues to enjoy nature photography. He is an avid rock climber and enjoys both indoor and outdoor climbing. His youth group climbed Hyalite Canyon and Revenue Flats in Montana. He is also a skier and enjoys Bridger Bowl because it’s a few minutes from campus and he can actually afford it. He would love to ski at Big Sky, but the ticket price is too rich for a college student’s budget.
Dominic has one word for how the Bootstraps scholarship affected him: “Motivation. Receiving the scholarship was a boost in motivation because it helped me see that I was going in the right direction. The scholarship is helping me make something of myself. It is a reward that is helping me go farther in my life.” Fortunately for Dominic, his scholarship has been renewed for the 2021/22 academic year!
